Home appreciation in Washtenaw County mirrors national trends. According to information from the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors, the median price for a single-family home in the county in the first eleven months of 2021 was $358,500—13.1 percent more than the same period the year before. The National Association of Realtors reported the median existing homes sales price nationally also increased by 13.1 percent over the same span, to $353,900.
Prices have not risen quite as fast in the Ann Arbor Public School District, but remain much higher. Through November, the median single-family home went for $451,000, up 10 percent from 2020. The median condo sold for $265,000, up 11.6 percent.
The pace of sales continues to accelerate. The median single-family home was on the market for just twenty-two days in the first eleven months of the year, down from thirty-seven in the same period in 2021. The median condo was on the market for thirty-four days before an offer was accepted, down from forty-four.
Year-over-year inventory is shockingly low: just 116 single-family homes were available at the end of November, down from 286 in November 2020. Condo listings dropped from 176 in November 2020 to seventy-one in November 2021.
Showing how quickly a price can escalate, 2359 Prairie, which sold for $427,000 in July 2020, is back on the map this month at $525,000 after a little polishing. This classic four-bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1,995-square-foot Colonial is across the street from Thurston Nature Center, where a set-built home “appeared” in the 2009 Rob Reiner film Flipped. This same style Colonial was used as a model for the set, built in a General Motors warehouse.
Showing that escalation is not guaranteed, 3816 Dixboro Rd. in Superior Township sold for $600,000—just $10,000 more than it did in 2017, when it was practically new. The four-bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2,025-square-foot ranch sold for less than its asking price both times, despite a long list of amenities that includes hickory hardwood floors, quartz countertops, stainless-steel appliances, a walk-in pantry, a mudroom with LG Smart WiFi-enabled washer and dryer, an indoor air-quality system, a whole-house generator, reverse-osmosis water purification, and Kinetico leak-protection system—plus a cedar deck, and a portion of the 9.6 acres fenced in for a yard.
